Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, will be recalled to the Leveson
Inquiry later this week to be questioned further about his newspaper’s spat
with the actor Hugh Grant.

Lord Justice Leveson, the Inquiry chairman, said he was “extremely unhappy” with the way Mr Dacre’s appearance yesterday had been used to pursue an “obvious conflict” between the two parties.

But he said Mr Dacre must return because he had been unable to answer certain questions about stories concerning Mr Grant as a result of both sides submitting fresh evidence at the eleventh hour.

Yesterday Mr Grant’s barrister, David Sherborne, was cut short by Lord Justice Leveson as he tried to ask Mr Dacre detailed questions about several stories that the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday had printed about his client. Mr Dacre is editor-in-chief of both titles.

Lord Justice Leveson said: “I’m extremely unhappy about the way in which yesterday afternoon did what I perceive to be damage to the appropriate flow of this inquiry.

“I’m not prepared to allow what is an obvious conflict between one of the core participants and another to divert attention from my concern about the customs, practices and ethics of the press.”

He also said he was unhappy with the way the Inquiry had been “bombarded” with fresh statements from both Mr Dacre and Mr Grant late on Friday, which had not given Mr Dacre or Mr Grant’s lawyers enough time to prepare responses.

When he returns Mr Dacre will be asked about a story that appeared in the Mail on Sunday referring to messages left on the actor’s mobile phone by a “plummy-voiced” English woman working for a film company in California.

Mr Grant claimed in his evidence to the inquiry that the only way the Mail on Sunday could have got the story was by hacking his phone, a claim that led the Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers, to accuse him of a “mendacious smear”.

Mr Harding is expected to be asked to give a more detailed account of the chain of events that led to his newspaper printing a story by a reporter who had hacked the email account of an anonymous police blogger, while Mr Mohan is expected to be asked about The Sun’s treatment of women.